December
by the new girl of lycanthropy
Summary: It was her birthday, and he was going to get her present to her. Even if that meant trudging to the first snow in years to do so. A December birthday special story. Guess for who? Oneshot.


**December  
By: The New Girl Of Lycanthropy**

It was December 27th, and her birthday was the most important thing on my mind. It had been snowing hard, one of the first hard snows in a long time for Konoha. Luckily, my friend Shugo had helped me make her present much earlier in the month. But no matter how many inches of snow I had to tread through, or how hostile the Hyuga response would be to me, I would get it to her.

Today.

So the first part of my walk was out my door. This didn't go that well; snow was piled up in front of the door. After knocking it down, I saw that I wasn't the only one outside.

I saw Sakura shoveling snow in front of her house, and her brother Shugo was chasing his girlfriend with a snowball in hand. "Hey, Sakura-chan!" I yelled from across the street. She stopped and looked up. When she saw me, a huge grin spread across her face. "Hey Naruto! Are you going to see Hinata today?"

"Of course I am! It's her birthday, where else would I be going?" She laughed and shook her head. I grinned too. "But remind Shugo that the party is at 5:00, okay?"

"Okay, Naruto," she was still chuckling. "don't worry about it. And you know what? It's a good thing you're going! I was going to beat the crap out of you if you didn't go to see her!"

I grabbed my chest, in mock-hurt. "Why do you have such little faith in me Sakura-chan?" I chuckled, then ran past Shugo's girlfriend Qua-Mai. She was aiming for his head, and would've hit him if she hadn't stopped to wave. I waved back, which counted for another laugh when Shugo hit her in the head while she was waving. I saw her face twist, and she promptly spun around and tackled him into the snow. While he was rolling around, he waved at me too.

I ran past a lot of people; Kiba, arguing with my sister near a store. Rikku was holding up and waving around a pocketknife, and it looked like she was about to stab him. But she wouldn't do that. She didn't, but it did cause people to stare.

I ran past Temari and Shikamaru. Those guys had started dating a month back, and so far it was doing better than anyone expected between the two of them. Apparentely, they were like a version of Rikku and Kiba times two; the arguing kept them together. I saw Shikamaru pointing at the snow that was falling down, and his mouth moving, while Temari held out her hand. She decided to stay in Konoha this winter, along with her brothers. I realized that he was probably talking about snow and how it formed and all that academic stuff. Being from the Sand village, she would never have experienced the weather.

When I was near the apartments, I saw Sasuke sticking his head out the window, and I thought I'd stop for a chat.

"Hey, teme!" I yelled. He looked down and smirked. "Hey dobe. What are you doing out her?"  
"I'm going to the Hyuga estate. What are you doing sticking your head out of the window? You're hair will get even more puffed up if you're out here to long!"  
"Haha, very fun dobe. I'm looking for Suigetsu. Have you seen him?"

That made me think. I had seen him and Yuna, Sasuke's sister, walking around town. They were, erm...on a date. Unlike everyone else, they didn't get that cold from snow. Suigetsu was okay with it, and Yuna could handmake fire or just move the snow of her; her to elements were fire, ice, and water. Not only a rare element (ice) but a rare combination, especially for an Uchiha. But it didn't matter to her.

However, concluding that Sasuke wouldn't appreciate them being...TOGETHER, I figured I'd best lie.

"Eh, no actually. Maybe you should go out and look for them? I uh......I haven't seen them at all." He stared at me. Why was he staring at me like that? "What?!"  
"Nothing. It's just that you've always been bad at lying."  
Yeah. I had  
"Eh, hehe...well, gotta go, see ya teme!" And at that, I bolted off.

I got to the small gate of the Hyuga estate, and I was relieved to find that the guard that was there was used to me. "Hey, Naruto!" he waved. I was glad; most Hyuga, with the exception of Neji and Hinata's sister Hanabi, didn't appreciate me very me much. "You here to see Lady Hinata?"

"Yeah, of course! It's her birthday! Where is she?"

"Ah, she in the courtyard. Boy, will she be happy to see you, Naruto. I hope you got her a good present." Yeah, so did I. But after he said that, he saw the worry in my face. "Oh, don't worry Naruto. I'm sure she'll love it, whatever it is. And if not, she'll just be happy you came. You know how she is!"

I smiled. That was true. But I didn't take advantage of it. "Yeah, I hope she's happy though. No, wait," I held out my hands in expression. "I hope she's ecstatic!"

He chuckled, and opened the gate. I waved at him again, and ran into the courtyard. And there she was, twirling around in the snow with her sister. I noticed Neji standing below the terrace, watching over them. But he looked happy; Hanabi was giggling at the beauty of the snow.

But I didn't notice this until later. I only had eyes for Hinata. She hadn't noticed me yet, so I quietly went around the bushes. Neji noticed, but did nothing. He knew why I was here. After going around, I timed her twirls. The second after she turned her back, I ran and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around that way. Her long hair waved in the air, and the blue tone looked wonderful in the light gray sky. I heard her gasp, but she already knew who I was; she started giggling, and pounded my back. "Naruto!" her voice chimed. "Put me down, Naruto!"

"Why? This is fun!" And I started twirling even faster, and she giggled more. I liked hearing her laugh; it made me happy. Simple as that. "See? Even you think it's fun!"

"I know, but I need....to see....your face!" She talked in between chuckles, and went limp. I kept going like that for a moment, and then finally set her down.

I took a moment to look at her. Unlike the rest of they're clan, Neji, Hinata, and Hanabi actually had a little color to their- almost white- eyes. Hinata's had a grayish tint, and it looked...cool, I guess, in the snow. She looked happy. She hadn't even gotten a "Happy Birthday" yet, and she seemed content.

"Happy Birthday Hinata." There. NOW she had a reason to be happy. And she was; her eyes widened. "Why, thank you Naruto-kun. You came all the way here just to tell me that though?"

"Of course not!" I said. But I might have said it a little too enthusiastically; she frowned. "I came her to give you your present too!" Her face became happy again. "Okay, so...." I reached into my pocket (it was a small, but meaningfull, present) and pulled out a thin box. She looked at it curiously, probably wondering what could be in such a small box. I handed it to her.

She glanced at me, then glance at the box. She shook it against her ear, which made me chuckle a little. Then she half-smiled, and looked at me again. "Naruto, what is it?"

"Come on! I can't tell you that Hinata-chan! It would ruin the big surprise!" She sighed, but started to open the box. I was an odd mixture of nervousness and excitement; would she like it? Would she hate it? And most importantly: would she be shocked by the ending?

She opened the box, and saw that whatever it was was craftily covered by fluff material. We bothed breathed deeply at the same time. We turned our heads up at each other, and both gave a nervous chuckle. I heard Hanabi giggle and if I knew Neji by now, I could bet he was smirking at the scene before him.

She breathed one more time, and lifted up the material. She gasped when she saw it, and that was all I needed to know.

You see, my sister Rikku had spent her childhood in this village that had some of our family's culture in it. A culture I didn't know about until I met her in the Mist at the age of twelve. They were called the Al-Bhed, and she had learned many of her skills from them. But one thing type of jewlry that was frequently given as a gift was the ankle bracelet. And that was what Rikku and Shugo had helped make me make. Rikku had gotten and mixed the metal; Shugo had finished off the details.

It was made out of pure silver, and had some liquid element mixed in that Rikku said would make it shine, and never rust. Shugo had put in the birthstones around the outer rim of the bracelet; turqoise. But I was the one that found the poem. "Hinata, look on the inside."

"There's more?!" she cried. I was startled. It was bad that there was more? Now I started to get scared about the ending...

But then I saw that she was smiling still. Oh. She was just kidding. Whew....

She looked on the inside, and I saw her eyes following the poem intently. I decided to just say it out loud; I was pretty proud of myself at that moment.

"Hinata, it's your birthday poem. One for each month, you know.....

...December.

If cold December gave you birth  
The month of snow and ice and mirth  
Place on your hand a turquoise blue;  
Success will bless whate'er you do."

"Naruto...that's a beautiful poem. Where did you-"

"Natasha showed it to me." Natasha was our friend; the girl that wasn't a ninja, didn't know anything about the ninja world. She literally must've popped out've nowhere (Note from author: here's a hint. I'M Natasha) just to be with our group. But it was a good thing; a small blessing that saved us a lot of hurt. And gave a lot of good.

"Oh, Naruto. I told you she was sweet." Ha! HA! Yeah right! But she DID have her moments..."But you still seem nervous. What's the problem? I love it!"

I was glad she loved it. Know I just needed to spit it out...

This was hard.  
Ok. On the count of 3.  
1....  
.......2  
3

Breathe and speak. "Hinata, will you marry me?"

* * *

I thought she was shocked. Or worse, annoyed. I could just imagine it; the 'we're too young' or 'how could you'. All things I was afraid of.  
But I only needed to see the same thing that I always loved the most about her. It gave me the answer.

Her smile.


End file.
